Disposable absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins are devices that are typically worn in the crotch region of an undergarment. Sanitary napkins, for example, are designed to absorb and retain body fluids or discharges (e.g., menses) from the body of women and to prevent body and clothing soiling. More specifically, sanitary napkins are worn by women in a pair of panties that is normally positioned between the wearer's legs, adjacent to the perineum area. A wide variety of shapes and dimensions of sanitary napkins is currently used by women for the collection of body fluids.
It is desirable that sanitary napkins maintain contact with and conform as closely as possible to the wearer's body. Such a body-conforming capability increases the effectiveness of sanitary napkins by reducing the possibility that body fluids will travel around the perimeter of sanitary napkins and leak.
There have been a number of recent efforts in sanitary napkins and other disposable absorbent articles to prevent a leakage of body fluids from the products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,386 issued to Correa et al. on May 17, 1994, discloses a disposable sanitary pad (or napkin) which has longitudinal compression lines formed on the body facing surface of the pad. This patent teaches that such compression lines allow the body facing surface of the pad to be brought closer to the point of discharge thereby improving a leakage problem from the longitudinal edges of the pad. Similarly, the Japanese Patent Laid-open (Kokai) Publication H10-99372 published on Apr. 21, 1998 discloses a sanitary napkin having longitudinal compressed grooves formed on both the body facing surface and the garment facing surface of the sanitary napkin. This publication states that this configuration allows the sanitary napkin to bend along the compressive grooves thereby improving a leakage problem.
However, in conventional sanitary napkins and pads including the above described ones, the central area which are in between the longitudinal compression lines or grooves normally rises (or tends to have an increased thickness) compared with the longitudinal compression lines or grooves, as a result of compression for the formation of the compression lines or grooves. This configuration tends to move the body fluids discharged on the body facing surface (i.e., a topsheet) away from the central area before they are acquired by the under layer(s) of the central area, and thus causing a leakage problem from the side edges and/or the end edges of sanitary napkins and pads.
Thus, there is a need for a disposable absorbent article that can provide an improved performance for preventing a leakage of body discharges.